My Sister’s Keeper Book Review

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

                My Sister’s Keeper is a dramatic novel telling the story of the Fitzgerald family and their battle with leukemia. The middle child, Kate, has been diagnosed and been fighting cancer since before she could walk and in order to save her, the Fitzgerald’s genetically created Anna, their youngest child. Everything about Anna is perfectly compatible with Kate’s ailing body. After dozens of operations, Anna decides to sue her parents for the right to her own body when asked to donate a kidney to Kate. The novel dives into the depths of the family cracks to discover the real motive behind Anna’s behavior all while trying to save Kate in the process.

                 The characters of this courageous story are each intricately knit with their own pattern of life like a Christmas sweater. The character of Anna is so rough around the edges that it’s so easy to want to love on her and take her side of the story immediately. Her relationship with her dying sister Kate is one that any two siblings would aspire to have. Their emotion and love is so pulling, you feel as if you are part of their family. The strains depicted between Sara and Brian, the mother and father, tug on the heart strings and pray that they can recoil their relationship and know their lives will be okay.

Picoult masters the feeling of the modern family and the struggles presented with a horrific situation with such ease and flow it poses the question that this was her real life. Her craft or writing differs from character to character that as the reader it feels as if it is happening in plain sight.  On page 195 Brian is narrating Anna’s move into the fire station with him and says, “Immediately, my face goes red, and as if it’s catching, so does Anna’s. There is only one female firefighter, a part-timer, and the women’s room is on the lower level of the station. But still.” The craft of the stream on consciousness displayed here only begins to describe the accuracy and livelihood of Picoult’s writing.

The plot of this novel is addicting. It is like a habit that just cannot be shaken. The twists and turns and drama that fill every page keep the reader on edge and dying to turn the next page. Within each character section, there are new bits of information to be discovered. There are parts of the novel where the senses go wild even though the obvious is about to happen. On page 367 Anna’s lawyer is in command of the courtroom. The novel reads, “From the corner of my eye, I can see Sara’s stunned face. I can hear the judge banging his gavel. ‘You’re right, Dr. Neaux – parents need to be parents,’ I say. ‘But sometimes that isn’t good enough.’” The drama never lets up in this novel and continues to unfold like a letter just discovered from the past.

                As a whole, My Sister’s Keeper, deserves a five out of five stars. Every single element of this novel has been picked at until it reached perfection and it is obvious. Any person of any age could and should wrap themselves up in this book because it speaks to the human heart directly. It is relatable even if the circumstances in this novel are extremes. Jodi Picoult has created another fantastic work and she continues to roll out novels that amaze. My Sister’s Keeper will work its way on to the “Need to Read” list of anyone and everyone from all walks of life.

Readicide

I do not believe that Genre Fiction is less worthy than Literary Fiction. I believe Genre fiction tends to contain the more popular books that have not had enough time to be fully appreciated like Literary Fiction has. Reader’s today tend to sway more towards reading Genre over Literary anyways. In schools, however, I think that Literary Fiction, because it has more “experience” should remain at the head of the curriculum. These books have been around and the teachers have had ample time to become masters of these books so they can teach them adequately.

In my opinion, the classroom should not be limited to Literary Fiction though. It is important to expose students to a range of material so they can learn and adapt in that way. If there was a mash of Literary and Genre Fiction merged into a school’s English curriculum, students would get a sense of how older reading and newer reading can be related and how it can affect their lives today. I do believe more Genre Fiction should be added into the lessons in present day schooling. These popular books would help to encourage kids to see what other new and popular books are on the rise and that could develop a sense of love for reading in the process.

Certain Literary Fiction books that are in our curriculum today that I believe should not be switched out are: To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, some works of Shakespeare and maybe The Color of Water. Those books all challenged me but were great books to read and were very relevant to today. Some books that I would not mind if they were thrown out are: Jane Eyre, Rebbecca, The Odyssey, and Brave New World. These few books were challenging but were overall boring and made me not want to read another book because of it.

Fight Club Book Trailer

Link to Prezi Presentation: http://prezi.com/f_fe3lmbwutk/book-project-2/

Film Adaptations

In adapting Fight Club to the big screen, a filmmaker would have obvious difficulties with the dialogue between the narrator and whoever he is communicating with. In the novel, the narrator is basically all reflecting and when he is reflecting upon what was said, he goes from the actual quote of the person he is talking to back to “then I said...” but not in quotations. Bringing that dialogue to life can be done, and it was some well in the modern movie depiction of the book, it is just not as easy as a cut and paste type script. Looking at the plot, since the whole book is a reflection, the plot basically goes from big even to big event and skips around. I think that would be hard to recreate because the actors would actually have to transition whereas the book can just skip around.

Three scenes that would be essential to keep for the movie adaptation would be the scene with Tyler and the lye on the narrator’s hand, the narrator beating himself up and making it look like his boss did it, and the soap factory/the fight club members living in the house with Tyler and the narrator. The scene with the lye was important because it permanently scarred the narrator and then that symbol started showing up on all the members of fight club or project mayhem. The beating himself up scene is important because it shows the narrator’s transformation as a person and how his personality is getting closer and closer to that of Tyler’s. Finally, the soap factory scene is important because it shows how large the group has grown and how it tore those men away from their lives. It shows how drastically fight club was impacting the whole world they lived in.

Two scenes that could be cut from the adaptation would be the scenes with the waiters and the narrator working in the fancy hotel and the ending scene where the narrator is in a mental hospital or dead. The hotel and waiters scenes were funny in the book, but were not present in the actual film adaptation and I thought the movie still did a fine job depicting the book without those scenes. The ending scene was very confusing and would have been really hard to recreate for the movie so it also could have been left out.

Since I have finished the book and there is already a film adaptation of Fight Club, I would venture to say that the adaptation fits the book really well. The actors chosen do a great job of depicting the characters like I would have imagined and the jumpy qualities of the book translated well onto the big screen. I would recommend that someone read the book or watch the movie. I watched the movie first and I don’t think it ruined any elements of the book, so whatever order someone experienced them wouldn’t matter in my opinion.

Book 1 Project

Book 1 Project

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

                In order to get Nineteen Minutes into the spotlight, I propose the idea of creating and establishing a tour centered on anti-bullying. This tour would be organized to travel from school to school and give a presentation on bullying and the effects it can have; from small scale to large scale like those occurring in the novel. The novel would be a focus point of the tour and even though that particular story is a work of fiction, it can be related to other school shootings like Kent State, Columbine, Virginia Tech, and more recently, Chardon. Even as a work of Jodi Picoult’s creative genius, the novel poses a very important problem that occurs in all schools across the country. This tour would benefit the community and raise awareness of bullying as well as do wonders for the novel by putting its name out there.

                My idea for this tour comes from multiple places in the novel. Throughout the court cases, interviews, and day by day events, it is the sole detail that ties the whole book together. One particular example of this is when Peter writes a love email to Josie and it is read by Josie’s friend, Courtney, before Josie ever got a chance to see it. Courtney forwarded it on to another boy in their friend group and he “spammed” it out to the entire school to embarrass Peter. Peter was then tricked by one of the boys into going up to Josie, thinking she liked him back. Peter was had his pants pulled all the way down in front of the whole cafeteria because of that confrontation. That one example was just one of millions of reasons that drove Peter so fulfill the act of his shooting. He was bottled up and then the say came where he exploded all his emotions and people died because of it. A line in the novel that sums this up perfectly is, “Even though those people died today, Peter Houghton was dying for 17 years."

                Another problem with that affected Peter was his craving to be accepted. He was bullied and bullied and never felt that he could fit in with the other kids at his school. In one quote from the novel, Peter summed up exactly how he was feeling, “When you don't fit in, you become superhuman. You can feel everyone else's eyes on you, stuck like Velcro. You can hear a whisper about you from a mile away. You can disappear, even when it looks like you're still standing right there. You can scream, and nobody hears a sound. You become the mutant who fell into a vat of acid, the Joker who can't remove his mask, the bionic man who's missing all his limbs and none of his heart. You are the thing that used to be normal, but that was so long ago, you can't even remember what it was like.” His identity was important to Peter, at least on the inside. Being bullied all throughout his years caused him to feel invisible, worthless, and like he didn’t matter to the school; and if he didn’t matter, then who would care if he opened fire on the few people that had been hurting him for so long? In another line from the novel, Peters intentions are made clear, “One day Peter, I promise you, everyone will know your name." Everyone at some point in their lives has the craving to be accepted and know among their peers. Add this craving on top of constantly being bullied and there is a recipe for disaster.

                I think that the idea of having a tour focusing around bullying would work in selling the book Nineteen Minutes because it really points out the importance of picking up the signs that a child is struggling and suffering. If this tour was to travel to dozens of schools across the country, the book would be recommended and sold at all of these places and be planted in the minds of the audiences. I also think that it will do good and help attempt to cease the bullying problem that is occurring everywhere across the country.

What Is A Book?

A book is a window into the emotional standpoint of a certain situation. When you think about a book, you realize that bound between its covers are the sweat and tears of the author whom of which spends numerous hours wording the story just right. If it takes emotion to write a book, then obviously within the text there is emotion. What makes a book so good to me is what I feel when I read it, which I’m sure can hold true for most everyone. Holding the pages in your hands and looking straight through the window of text to find the emotion trigger is what makes a book so great. There are hundreds of books all written about the same thing but the emotion of the book tends to be the deciding factor in what is popular and what is not. For me, Nicholas Spark’s works are all great reads. They all tug on my heart strings and make me what the experiences that the book is describing. A lot of people say Sparks’ books are all the same or predictable, which may be true, but the emotion is his writing is what sets him above all the other love stories out there, in my opinion.

Now, I think that a book is also tarnished and different if it is not physically there with you. I am clearly not a big fan of all the electronic reads because I just simply feel that part of the book experience is lacking. There is most definitely something magical about holding the pages bound together and sealed with a creative cover while you read. It creates the experience. Every book has its own smell, its own sound it makes when it closes and its own vibe about it. To me, a book is there, in your hands being flipped and flipped by yourself, not the touch of a button.

Why I Read.

Being asked the question "why do you read," sends thoughts and memories rushing through my mind. I think back to reading books mostly comprised of pictures like Dr. Dan "The Bandage Man" by Suzanne Utts, whenever I rode in my grandma's car. I believe at that time I read because of the rush it gave my imagination and helped me think in ways and stories beyond my capacity of coming up with on my own. I think that the previous reason still holds true to my reading behind why I read today. More recently I find myself reading books about love and romance (like Nicholas Sparks books). I believe that I read those books because of how they make me smile and feel like the world is still a simple place.

If I was asked to give a simple answer to the open-ended question “why do I read,” I would have to answer with one word: hope. I think books give me hope that there is adventure and amazing things out there in the world. That if you want to experience a book worthy story you have to chase down the “what if’s” and crash over them, make them a thing of the past. The characters in books never leave any regrets in their lives and in the end their lives pan out according to their actions. This is why I read, simple as that.